Posts tagged ‘Lord’s Prayer’
Why Pray, “Lead Us Not Into Temptation”?
Credit: Wikipedia
It seems as though the wording of the Lord’s Prayer will soon be changing in the liturgies of the Roman Catholic Church. Charlotte Allen reports for First Things:
On November 15 the Italian Bishops’ Conference announced that it plans to change the wording of the Lord’s Prayer in the Mass liturgy. The bishops want the current Italian equivalent of “lead us not into temptation” to become “do not abandon us to temptation.”
The bishops have now petitioned the pope to approve this proposed alteration – a petition he is almost certain to grant. In a 2017 interview with an Italian Catholic television channel, the pontiff expressed his distress with the current Italian wording – non c’indurre in tentazione, a literal translation of the Latin ne nos inducas in tentationem that is part of the Lord’s Prayer in the Vulgate versions of the Gospels of Matthew and Luke.
I would hasten to add that the traditional translation of “lead us not into temptation” comports not only nicely with the old Latin Vulgate, but with the Greek of Matthew and Luke. So, why is Pope Francis so concerned with this translation? Ms. Allen continues:
Francis opined that “lead us not” might confuse the Catholic faithful, because “it is not God who throws me into temptation and then sees how I fell.”
On the one hand, the pope is right in claiming that God does not lead us into temptation. No less than Jesus’ brother declares:
When tempted, no one should say, “God is tempting me.” For God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does he tempt anyone; but each person is tempted when they are dragged away by their own evil desire and enticed. (James 1:13-14)
James is clear that it is not God who tempts us to do evil; it is we who tempt us to do evil. We, as the saying goes, are our own worst enemies. God, on the other hand, does not and will not tempt us.
So, this begs the question: why would Jesus teach us to pray to God that He would not lead us into temptation if the Bible says that God doesn’t tempt anyone?
Martin Luther, in his explanation to this line in the Lord’s Prayer, writes:
God, indeed, tempts no one; but we pray in this petition that God would guard and keep us, so that the devil, the world, and our flesh may not deceive us, nor seduce us into misbelief, despair, and other great shame and vice; and though we be assailed by them, that still we may finally overcome and gain the victory.
Notice that Luther begins his explanation of Jesus’ words with the promise of James 1:13. This is the crux of Luther’s explanation of this line in the Lord’s Prayer because when we pray, “Lead us not into temptation,” we are praying a promise of God. In other words, we are simply praying back to God what God has already sworn to do for us.
One of the wonderful things about the Lord’s Prayer is that the whole prayer is composed of God’s promises. When we pray, for instance, “Thy kingdom come,” we know that God’s kingdom has certainly come in Christ, even without our prayer. As Jesus Himself says, “The kingdom of God has come near to you” (Luke 10:9). This is why Luther writes, in his explanation of this phrase, “The kingdom of God comes indeed without our prayer, of itself.” Or, when we pray, “Thy will be done,” we know that God’s will is always done, even without our prayer. As Job says to God, “I know that You can do all things; no purpose of Yours can be thwarted” (Job 42:2). This is why Luther writes, in his explanation of this phrase, “The good and gracious will of God is done indeed without our prayer.” God always says “yes” to the Lord’s Prayer because before the prayer was a prayer, it was a series of promises made by God. And God always keeps His promises.
What is true of God’s kingdom and sovereign will is also true when we pray, “Lead us not into temptation.” God most certainly will not lead us into temptation because of His promise. Praying this petition, then, can remind us of God’s promise.
What the pope suggests we pray about temptation – that God would not abandon us to temptation – is certainly a fine and needed prayer, but it is not the Lord’s Prayer. It is good to pray Francis’ line, then, in addition to what Jesus says. We should be careful, however, praying Francis’ line in place of what Jesus says.
For centuries now, Christians have prayed the Lord’s Prayer as they have received the Lord’s Prayer. Perhaps, instead of trying to revise it, we should be content with just receiving it as well.
“For Thine Is the Kingdom and the Power and the Glory” – Where Did That Come From?
“Sermon on the Mount” by Carl Heinrich Bloch
This past weekend in worship, we studied the most famous prayer of all time: the Lord’s Prayer. Jesus offers this model prayer as part of His Sermon on the Mount:
This, then, is how you should pray: “Our Father in heaven, hallowed be Your name, Your kingdom come, Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us today our daily bread. Forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one.” (Matthew 6:9-13)
Whenever I teach on the Lord’s Prayer, someone inevitably notices that, in Matthew’s account, the doxology often included in traditional versions of this prayer – “For Thine is the kingdom and the power and glory, forever and ever. Amen” – is missing. Where did it go?
Interestingly, the old King James Version includes the doxology because the Greek manuscripts from which the translators of that day were working incoporated it. As biblical textual criticism has advanced over the past four hundred years, however, we have learned that the doxology is absent from the most ancient and significant manuscripts of the Bible, including Sinaiticus and Vaticanus, both from the fourth century, and is also omitted in early patristic commentaries on the Lord’s Prayer including those of Tertullian, Origen, and Cyprian.[1] Thus, these words are not included in more modern translations with the understanding that they were probably not a part of the original biblical text.
It is important to understand that the exclusion of the doxology as part of the biblical text does not mean that it is errant or inappropriate to the prayer. Quite the contrary. It reflects the spirit of 1 Chronicles 29:11: “Yours, O Lord, is the greatness and the power and the glory and the majesty and the splendor, for everything in heaven and earth is Yours.” Moreover, the doxology has been included as a liturgical strophe from the earliest days of the Christian Church. The Didache, a manual of church practice from the turn of the second century, includes a truncated version of the doxology: “For Yours is the power and the glory for ever.” The Didache goes on to encourage the faithful to pray the Lord’s Prayer three times a day.[2] Christians, then, were speaking these words from the earliest days of the church…a lot!
More than likely, this doxology began as a response of the people, gathered for worship, to the words of the Lord in this prayer. It is much like, at the end of a Scripture lesson in worship today, the reader will sometimes conclude, “This is the Word of the Lord” and the people will sometimes respond, “Thanks be to God.” The doxology, then, was a way for those assembled to praise God for the prayer His Son had given them. With time, however, the liturgical function of this doxology was forgotten and people began to assume that the words were part of the prayer itself.
We, along with many others, continue to pray these words because, finally, they are a statement of faith in the heavenly Father to whom we are praying. We believe that the reason He can bring His kingdom to pass, give us our daily bread, forgive our trespasses, and deliver us from the evil one is because the Kingdom, power, and glory are at His disposal to do with as He wishes. And His wish, as we delightedly learn from the Lord’s Prayer, is to bless and save us. And so, we continue to praise God with this doxology and pray as Christ has taught us.
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